My Wishlist

Fear of Massage: Demo 3

This album is a combination of studio and demo tracks recorded many years ago. Enjoy these rare cuts that never made it onto finished albums. Included in this package are two brand new cuts co-written with Andrew Gold and recorded in his studio.

ABOUT THIS ALBUM

Album Notes

Stephen Bishop is a world-class guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter with a celebrated career of over four decades of live performance, song craftsmanship, recording, and entertainment. A San Diego native, Stephen Bishop’s introduction to the music industry was after seeing the Beatles perform on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” at 13 years old. Shortly after seeing their performance, his brother Denny bought him an electric guitar. He began creating his own unique chords, melodies and writing original songs. The first song he ever wrote was called, “Surf’s Turf,” an instrumental. Less than a year after picking up the guitar, Stephen formed a band called, “The Weeds.” Soon after, they began performing at local venues, playing a mixture of original songs and popular hits on the radio at the time. As a band, the Weeds placed second at the Claremont Battle of the Bands in 1966.

After the Weeds disbanded, Stephen ventured to Los Angeles in the hopes of landing a songwriting contract. Stephen walked the streets of LA in the early 1970’s with nothing more than a $12 guitar. He began playing songs for different publishers in the area and landed a deal with Edwin H. Morris Publishing in Hollywood. Stephen was paid $50 per week. During his first few years at the publishing company, only one of his songs was recorded. At one point, Stephen considered leaving Los Angeles to work for his father's insurance company in San Diego. However, his friend Leah Kunkel connected him with Art Garfunkel. Art recorded two of Stephen's songs on his album, “Breakaway.”

Shortly thereafter, Stephen was signed to ABC Records. He released his first album, “Careless,” which had two popular hits, “On and On,” and “Save It For a Rainy Day.” It became gold certified, as well as his second album, “Bish.” Stephen Bishop has released 17 albums and has played his songs personally for Barbra Streisand, Diana Ross, Bette Midler, Melissa Manchester, and Katy Perry. His newest album, "Blueprint" was released in 2016. In Eric Clapton's autobiography, he mentions Stephen Bishop as one of his favorite songwriters.

Accomplishments

Stephen Bishop’s hit song, “It Might Be You,” was the theme to the film “Tootsie.” Stephen has written the themes to several films, including “Animal House,” "The Money Pit," and “White Nights.” His songs have been performed by Phil Collins, Eric Clapton, Barbra Streisand, Art Garfunkel, Steve Perry, Stephanie Mills, Kenny Loggins, Johnny Mathis, Phoebe Snow, David Crosby, The Four Tops, Aswad, Beyonce, and Pavarotti. Stephen was nominated for two Grammy's and awarded an Oscar nomination for his song, “Separate Lives.”

Fun Fact

Stephen appeared as the “Charming Guitar Player,” in Animal House. In the toga party scene, John Belushi slams Stephen's guitar to smithereens.

It is not hard to find a handful of songs that clearly could have made it on final production CDs/Albums. Although some of the recordings are clearly older and of less quality, the selection of songs may make this the best of the 3 demo CDs. And by the way they are all good!!

... where does that guy get the songs from? Sure - as the other demo CDs - some of the recordings are of less quality, but "Fiddlers Green", "A Dance of the Heart" or "Linda Linda" are songs definitely worth listening to. And - although obviously recorded in the bathroom - "One in a million girl" brought tears of joy to my eyes! Now that's stuff I long for, Stephen! Just carry on and visit us in Europe soon!

The first three songs of this CD up and including "Un baile del corazon" are very good, and are very much in the style of Stephen's previous material, although he did not write them alone. The rest of the CD, has many upbeat (including a fast version of "I go numb", much better in "Blue guitars") and some poorly recorded songs, which are not enjoyable, I.M.H.O.
Anyway, I consider this CD a good buy. Very seldom I get to buy CD's with 3 songs I truly enjoy.

I thought by Demo 3, Stephen Bishop would be running low on great material... wrong! This is strong stuff. Worthy of being called a "studio album", so to speak. A "must-have" for older fans, a "must-listen" to open the door to new fans.

This is a must-have for Bish fans. A treasure. And it gets better with every listen. "Linda Linda" rocks like no other Bish song in his recording career. Andrew Gold's contributions to this disc are also noteworthy. I'd highly recommend it!

The main thing I like about these Demo discs is that they have a number of songs that, for one reason or another, were not fully produced or included in the final versions of albums that were released. In listening to Demo discs 1, 2 and now FOM/3, Bish holds nothing back from his archives letting us hear everything, and I mean EVERYTHING... (You'll know what I'm referring to when you hear the hidden track "Nem Nom"...) That being said, this disc is probably the richest treasure trove for Bish Heads.

This collection is another fantastic glimpse into Bish's creative process with warts and all, which makes even the non-hits an interesting sonic experience. If you approach it expecting perfection, you're ripping yourself off. Some of these songs have come as far as they'll ever go. Others are hits waiting for a record deal and a little promotion. When you hear the fast version of "I Go Numb", you hear a great idea about to be tweaked onto the big show of 1996. A must for all Stephen Bishop music followers.

If you enjoy listening to Stephen's other albums, you'll love this just the same. His songs are written in the same manner as his studio albums. In fact, Demo 3 has great songs just like as in his Demo 1 and Demo 2 CD's. The funny thing is that these sound like finished studio albums. I thought that they would sound mono tone since they were listed as being demo. Well, they are not and they sound great!!!!

Like other reviewers have said there are four complete songs. But it will be a mystery to me as to why "One in a million girl" was never properly recorded unlike what the reviewer who said it sounded like a bathroom recording, I imagine it was probably taken from a cassette of a rough mix and the master tape probably lost into oblivion. I must also say,"I was a teenage millionare" is a big favorite of mine. When you listen to "Sentimental" you'll hear how it was influenced by John Lennon's song "Bless you". "Mister Wonderful" while I like it, sounds like it could've fit nicely into a cheezee 80's movie I can actually picture women doing aerobics to it.